Welfare Reform

Lord Freud: I am announcing a number of measures which together take further the Government's welfare reforms by placing strong requirements on benefit claimants who are able to work and providing tougher sanctions for claimants who fail to meet those requirements.
	Over the past 19 months we have made significant strides in our fundamental overhaul of the welfare system. The work programme-the largest post-war employment programme of its kind, designed on a payment-by-results basis-has been operating across the country since the summer. We have begun the three-year programme to reassess 1.5 million people currently claiming incapacity benefit. And we have measures in the Welfare Reform Bill which support the introduction of universal credit in 2013, the most radical overhaul of the benefit system in over 60 years.
	We remain focused on the successful implementation of these major pieces of reform. But we believe more needs to be done now to ensure that benefit claimants are clear on the expectations they must meet in return for receiving their benefit and the consequences for them if they fail to meet those expectations.
	In April this year we changed jobseeker's allowance so that jobseekers have to take all reasonable steps to find a job. Previously they had to do no more than three steps or activities a week; now a Jobcentre Plus adviser can require anything from three activities upwards depending on an individual's circumstances. We will be taking this further by including in the jobseeker's agreement the expectation that a claimant should be spending several hours a day to achieve his weekly job-search goals. In addition we will bring forward regulations to extend their job search from day one of their claim by requiring them to look for any suitable job which is within a 90-minute commute from their home, subject to caring responsibilities or health considerations.
	As well as placing stronger conditions on a claimant's benefit we will be improving our ability to monitor their activities. From spring 2012 we will introduce an IT system which will allow jobseekers to search and apply for jobs online and will help Jobcentre Plus staff to monitor their activities. In addition, later this year we will start a series of trials to assess the effectiveness of different methods of checking whether a claimant is fulfilling their job-search requirements. One of these trials will test the impact of requiring claimants to sign on every week rather than every two weeks.
	We also need to be sure that benefit claimants understand the financial consequences if they fail, without good reason, to meet the conditions attached to their benefit. The Welfare Reform Bill currently going through Parliament will provide for a clearer and stronger system of sanctions. Through the claimant commitment we will set out what each benefit claimant is required to do and the consequences if they fail to meet those requirements. We will also introduce a clear framework for sanctions under which the more serious the failure the longer the sanction, and the more frequent the failures the longer the sanction. The highest sanction will be set at three years for someone who fails three times to take up a reasonable job offer. This sends a clear signal to claimants about the importance we attach to their undertaking job search in a serious way.
	We believe these measures will make for a strong but fair system in which we will continue to offer financial support to everyone who needs it and employment support to move more people off benefit and into work.